''Pietà'' is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist

Pietro Perugino Pietro Perugino ( ; ; born Pietro Vannucci or Pietro Vanucci; – 1523), an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael became his most famou ...

, executed around 1483–1493, and housed in the

Uffizi Gallery The Uffizi Gallery ( ; , ) is a prominent art museum adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

History

The work was painted for the church of the convent of San Giusto alle mura together with the ''

Agony in the Garden The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane is an episode in the life of Jesus, which occurred after the Last Supper and before his betrayal and arrest, all part of the Passion of Jesus leading to his crucifixion and death. This episode is describ ...

'' and a ''

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

''. Renaissance art biographer

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...

saw them in side altars of the church of San Giovanni Battista alla Calza, after the original location had been destroyed during the Siege of Florence in 1529. It was moved to the Uffizi in the 20th century. The dating of the work is disputed: it varies from 1482, the year of Perugino's return from Rome, to a slightly later period, although before the end of the century, when the artist started to use only line oil, which in these works is used only at an experimental level. The painting was restored in 1998.

Description

The scene of the

Pietà The Pietà (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Mary (mother of Jesus), Blessed Virgin Mary cradling the mortal body of Jesus Christ after his Descent from the Cross. It is most often found in sculpture. ...

was depicted by Perugino under a portico, a typical theme of his art in the 1480s and 1490s (used for example in the Albani-Torlonia Polyptych of the '' Madonna with Child Enthroned between Saints John the Baptist and Sebastian''). The serene landscape with light trees is also common in his paintings of the period. Such as in the German Vesperbilder, Jesus's body is horizontal and quite rigid, also held by John the Evangelist on the left and Mary Magdalene on the right. At the sides are further saints, a young one (Nicodemus) on the left, with the hands joined in his chest, and an aged one (Joseph of Arimathea) on the right, looking down. The use of less pale tonalities for Mary Magdalene is similar to that used by

Luca Signorelli Luca Signorelli ( – 16 October 1523) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Cortona, in Tuscany, who was noted in particular for his ability as a draftsman and his use of foreshortening. His massive frescos of the ''Last Judgment'' (1499–15 ...

at the time.

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pieta (Perugino) Paintings by Pietro Perugino in the Uffizi 1480s paintings Paintings of Mary Magdalene

Perugino Pietro Perugino ( ; ; born Pietro Vannucci or Pietro Vanucci; – 1523), an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael became his most famous ...